Chicago – Tammy Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs in a grenade attack in Iraq, is now leading the charge for the “Fighting Democrats.”
Duckworth narrowly won the Democratic nomination for Congress in a primary race Tuesday for the House seat held by Republican Rep. Henry Hyde, who is retiring after 32 years. She is the best-known of the Iraq war veterans who want to go to Capitol Hill this year.
“My experience in Iraq made me realize, and during the recovery, that I could have died,” said Duckworth, who was wounded in 2004 and gets around by using either a wheelchair or metal prosthetic limbs and a cane. “And I just had to do more with my life.”
About 10 veterans of the current fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are candidates for Congress, all but one a Democrat. The Fighting Democrats, as they are being called, contend that their battlefield experience will allow them to criticize the war without being written off as naive and weak on defense.
Duckworth, a 38-year-old major in the Illinois Army National Guard, has strong backing from big-name national Democrats, some of whom recruited her to run in the traditionally Republican district in Chicago’s suburbs.
On the campaign trail, she has portrayed U.S. involvement in Iraq as a mistake. She has faulted U.S. intelligence and accused American politicians of making poor decisions.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, doubts that Duckworth will win in November but said “she serves a function for Democrats even if she loses,” by helping Democrats compete with Republicans on national security.
